Cody Rhodes Comments on His John Cena SummerSlam Match Being “Part Of The Beauty Of That Match Was The Lack Of A Match That Really Took Place At WrestleMania”
A recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show featured Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about his match against John Cena at this past August’s SummerSlam 2025 Night 2 event and why he treats his matches against Cena at WrestleMania 41 and SummerSlam like they are one match.
“It’s MetLife, what a good time. I hate saying this, but part of the beauty of how great that match is was the lack of a match that really took place at WrestleMania in a sense. Sometimes the long game is the game. It’s like going on last, it’s a hard spot occasionally, but the bigger picture — I treat them as the same match and then we just got to use all the bells and whistles.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com
Lexis King Announces Passing of His Brother Jesse Morgan
NXT talent Lexis King announced on Twitter that his brother Jesse Morgan passed away on Thursday.
“I lost my brother today.
He was a badass, highly intelligent, witty and charismatic dude who grew up in the 90s.
He loved video games, Warhammer, R.A. Salvatore, among many other cool bro stuff.
Recently we had been on Discord playing StarCraft 2 co-op together and he was enrolled in classes at the University of Cincinnati.
He was a veteran who suffered from issues after surviving some traumatic events while serving in Afghanistan.
He loved his country, his last Facebook post was this:
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
Some words to live by…
The battle with your demons is now over brother.
Rest in Peace Jesse Morgan 🙏”
I lost my brother today.
— King (@LexisKingWWE) October 2, 2025
He was a badass, highly intelligent, witty and charismatic dude who grew up in the 90s.
He loved video games, Warhammer, R.A. Salvatore, among many other cool bro stuff.
Recently we had been on Discord playing StarCraft 2 co-op together and he was… pic.twitter.com/RmNIV19OG7
WWE News & Notes
WWE recently announced that they have teamed up with Fandango to air their Crown Jewel: Perth event on October 11th in select movie theaters across the United States.
As noted before, the September 26th WWE SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida was notable for a very blatant pin count botch moment during the WWE Women’s Championship Triple Threat match between Jade Cargill, Nia Jax, and Tiffany Stratton. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the cause of the botched sequence was Stratton being late in breaking up Cargill’s near fall attempt on Jax and Jax having to kick out. This reportedly caused some confusion afterwards when Stratton pinned Jax right afterwards. Those spoken to reportedly stated that was the original planned ending to the match and it is currently not known why the referee did not count to three for the pinfall. It was reported that there have been multiple different things being claimed internally over the botched sequence.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials have shifted their mentality when it comes to calling up talent from NXT to the main roster. It was reported that WWE officials have moved away from the previous method of immediately pulling talent from NXT television and leaving their NXT brand in a difficult creative position. Those spoken to reportedly stated that the new approach is more flexible and secretive. It was reported that this new process allows for a smoother transition for the talent and better long-term planning for all three of the company’s brands. It was also reported that this has also led to call-up decisions being kept “close to the vest.” WWE officials reportedly also now sees the value in having veterans wrestlers with television experience on their NXT brand and some veteran talents have been brought into the company with the specific intention of having a full run in NXT and no immediate plans for a main roster role.
WWE recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full November 1, 2000 episode of WCW Thunder.
WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full “That’s Gotta Be Kane! | WWE Untold” documentary. The second new video was a WWE Championship match of Diesel vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart (c) from WWE King of the Ring 1994.
In a recent interview with AFL Today, “Big” Bronson Reed gave his thoughts about the importance of entrance music in wrestling and how he sometimes misses being able to come out to “Guillotine” by Death Grips for his matches. Reed stated “Those things are important. When you come out for your entrance, it sets the tone, so I always wanted something that was distinctive. I have that with WWE, it’s obviously a bigger scale and budget. They like to do their own in-house music, but I do miss my old music sometimes.” Reed also gave his thoughts about how WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque isn’t a fan of the song for why he doesn’t use it in WWE. Reed stated “Well, the thing is, this is going to expose my boss, but he’s a good dude. I once showed Guillotine to Triple H and he was not a fan. I think maybe he didn’t listen to it in the right atmosphere. You know, listening to something on your phone and then hearing some crazy man start rambling. I’m like, if you heard it in an arena with the bass and the treble and stuff, then you would understand it works. But yeah, he was not a fan of Guillotine.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent episode of the Hall of Fame with Booker T and Brad Gilmore podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and WWE commentator Booker T gave his thoughts about the botched pin count ending sequence to the WWE Women’s Championship Triple Threat match at the September 26th WWE SmackDown show. Booker T stated “You could tell there was a lot of miscommunication in the match, as well. For me, it’s no different than what we do at Reality of Wrestling with girls and triple threats. Trying to put the girls in the best position to be comfortable in the ring is the most important thing. You have NIL talent in Tiffany Stratton. You have Jade Cargill, who is pretty much just fresh off her AEW run. Just think about the time in AEW for her. She probably didn’t learn a whole lot. No disrespect or anything, but she was put on a wing and never really got a chance to wrestle anybody. Right? Then, you have Nia Jax, who has been there and is going to feel like, ‘I need to quarterback this thing. I feel I know more than these girls.’ It could have been a plethora of things, but you can tell there was a lot of miscommunication. One thing about matches like that, the only thing they’re going to remember is the finish. You have to get everybody to that point where that finish can happen and boom, it goes off without a hitch. That didn’t happen in this match. Was it a botch? Heck yeah, it was a botch. A miscommunication. A screw up. Whatever term you want to put on it. That can happen on live television.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Backstage Update on Tony Khan Turning Down WBD Offer for ROH TV Deal & Status of Talks for New TV Deal
WWE: Wrestling World Pays Tribute to CM Punk & AJ Lee’s Dog Larry, John Cena Appearance Advertised for WWE RAW After WrestleMania 42 Show, Maxxine Durpi on “My Goal Is To Continue To Elevate The WWE Women’s Intercontinental Title”
WWE: Entrance Order Plans for Men’s WarGames Match Reportedly Causing “Creative Contention”, Santos Escobar WWE Abscense Update, Drew McIntyre on Not Getting One of John Cena’s Final Matches
